Kennesaw Life & Accident Insurance v. Templeton

118 S.E.2d 247, 102 Ga. App. 867, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 763
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 30, 1960
Docket38477
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 118 S.E.2d 247 (Kennesaw Life & Accident Insurance v. Templeton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kennesaw Life & Accident Insurance v. Templeton, 118 S.E.2d 247, 102 Ga. App. 867, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 763 (Ga. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinions

Bell, Judge.

In this case the plaintiff asserts that the insured came to his death solely by external, violent, and accidental means, in that the double-barreled shotgun which he was in the process of cleaning was discharged by accident, causing his instant death. The defendant, on the other hand, contends that the insured met his death through intentional self-destruction by suicide, and thus the defendant is relieved from liability by reason of Code § 56-909, which provides, “Death by suicide, or by the hands of justice, either punitive or preventive, shall release the insurer from the obligation of his contract.” From the cases which both parties have amassed in their briefs, coupled with the additional cases the court has examined, it appears that [879]*879the area of this particular conflict is one of the most fought-over battlegrounds of the law. According to the great weight of authority, in determining whether or not the insurer is liable under these circumstances, where the policy provides for benefits in case of death by external, violent, and accidental means, where the means, producing death were external and violent, there is a presumption, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the means were also accidental. 12 A. L. R. 2d 1250, 1276. This presumption has been applied in a variety of situations, including death by asphyxiation, by automobile accident, by drowning, by explosion, by falling, by gunshot wound, and in many other circumstances. Thus, “Cases of this sort have always been and will always be difficult. A human being is found dead; it is apparent that death was caused from a gunshot wound from a weapon found nearby, and that this gun was fired through some act of the deceased. But the question at once arises as to whether the wound was voluntarily inflicted with the intention of self-destruction or was the result of some unfortunate and involuntary mischance in the handling of the weapon. No other person has witnessed the event; there is no direct evidence to tell us what really happened. We can seek the answer only through the evidence of all the surrounding circumstances from which inferences may properly be drawn. And from these it is rare that conclusive or entirely convincing results are obtained.” Clemmer v. Jefferson Standard Life Ins. Co., 9 F. Supp. 115, 121 (reversed in 79 F. 2d 724; 103 A. L. R. 171). A study of many cases considering this problem indicates that the mental, moral, and emotional state of the deceased is an important factor in determining whether or not the jury could have concluded that the death was by suicide rather than by accident or vice versa. Thus, where the evidence indicated that the insured was happily married, devoted to his wife and child, a man of good character, prosperous in business, and there was no indication of intent to commit suicide, and where the firearm went off while he was sitting at his desk looking at some papers, it was held that the proof of death from the injuries received raised a presumption of death by accidental means. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Graves, 201 Ark. 189 (143 [880]*880S. W. 2d 1102). To the same effect, where the body was found with two pistols, see Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Milward, 118 Ky. 716 (82 S. W. 364, 68 L. R. A. 285, 4 Ann. Cas. 1092).

In a case before this court where the evidence showed the insured died as a result of a gunshot wound but without further explanation as to the cause of death, it was held that the plaintiff is aided in carrying the burden by the presumption or inference that the death was by accident rather than by suicide. Schneider v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 62. Ga. App. 148 (7 S. E. 2d 772). In the Schneider case the evidence showed that the deceased was aiding a neighbor in catching a hog at the barn. Shortly thereafter a noise was heard, and the insured was found lying in the doorway of the barn. The evidence further revealed that there was a “kindly” blue spot on the forehead of the insured; that he never regained consciousness; that an automatic pistol was found a foot or two from where he was lying; that there were no powder burns on his flesh, but one witness was under the impression that he saw some powder bums on the hat of the deceased; that the doctor who examined the deceased testified that the range of the bullet was downward and that the pistol would have had to be a little more than horizontal with the handle to make that wound, and in his opinion the pistol was fired at close range; that the pistol had been sold to the insured about six months before his death; and that when the pistol was found near the body of the deceased the magazine had been taken out and was found on his person. There was found in the record evidence that the insured had always been a man of jovial and kindly disposition; he had a wife and two children; there was no marital or family trouble to worry him, and on the day of his death and shortly before, he appeared to be in the same unworried, jovial, and contented mood, and that there was nothing about his actions to indicate anything unusual or that he would take his own life. On the other hand, there was evidence that he had frequent attacks of kidney colic, which lasted some minutes during which he would have fits and suffer excruciating and intense pain and agony. There was also evidence that, until the day before his death, he had operated a store for another person on a fifty-[881]*881fifty basis, and evidence indicating that he claimed that some time previously he had been robbed at the store and tied up, that these persons he accused were not convicted of robbery, and evidence that two or three days before his death he had a promise of two jobs and was going to take one of them but he didn’t know which one. There was further evidence from which the jury might find that the deceased was $150 short in the settlement of his division of the profits in the store business. In the proof of death submitted to the insurer, the cause of death as signed by the plaintiff was stated to have been “gunshot wound self-inflicted.” In that case the defendant contended that the evidence showed the insured had cause for committing suicide, and the fact that the deceased would have had to grip the pistol and squeeze it in order to pull the trigger shows that the same was not an accidental discharge of the pistol and, therefore, could not be an accidental death, and that the burden of the proof in the death of the deceased was not carried by the plaintiff to such an extent as to “show accidental death.” The trial judge, on motion, granted a nonsuit, and the plaintiff excepted. This court there held that the petition as amended set out a cause of action and was not subject to any of the grounds of demurrer. In reaching this conclusion, it was pointed out that death might be the result of a gunshot wound self-inflicted and not be suicide, citing Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Durden, 9 Ga. App. 797 (72 S. E. 295); Freeman v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 35 Ga. App. 770 (134 S. E. 639). It was further held in the Schneider

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Kennesaw Life & Accident Insurance v. Templeton
120 S.E.2d 128 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1961)
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119 S.E.2d 549 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
118 S.E.2d 247, 102 Ga. App. 867, 1960 Ga. App. LEXIS 763, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kennesaw-life-accident-insurance-v-templeton-gactapp-1960.